As is his habit, Trump disputed that assertion…

The notion of an Obama vs. Trump matchup started me reflecting on each of these people as candidates. Not about how they campaigned but reflecting upon what each said they wanted to do for America. Because that’s what I believe the people really voted for or against, and reveals a possible answer to the hypothetical question of who would have won between candidate Obama and candidate Trump.

The pertinent part of the interview comes at about the 36 minute mark:

Eight years ago Obama said “we are one week away from fundamentally transforming America!” This statement was fairly well reported, but of course most in government as well as the main stream media either paid little attention to what the statement con-notates, or agreed with the statement completely. I remember feeling very disturbed about that statement because it confirmed all I had believed back in the 2008 primary season about how disastrous and even dangerous this man could be as President. This statement which tells us that Obama’s desire was to ‘fundamentally’ transform America also communicates a lot about his vision of and for America.

His vision of America, at least back in 2008, was that we were a flawed nation. Flawed to the extent that our very fundamental principles needed to be ‘transformed’. We were flawed from the very beginning because of slavery, and even after correcting that flaw, we have been flawed with pride and arrogance as patriotic Americans! This vision of America was evident shortly after Obama was enthroned, pardon me, inaugurated and set off on his now infamous “apology tour” around the world telling everybody how sorry we were for exploiting them or some other such nonsense.

Obama’s vision for America was to ‘transform’ our land into a Socialist utopia with methods envisioned by his mentors, Frank Marshall Davis and Saul Alinsky. Every step he has taken during his tenure as President was planned with such a transformation of America in mind. The achievement of Obamacare itself was designed to enlarge government to such a degree and create a forced dependence of such a character that when it failed Obama’s stated goal of a ‘single-payer’ system totally in line with a Socialist government’s would become a reality. There are many such examples throughout Obama’s regime designed to enlarge government along with others designed to destabilize society in order to create a greater perceived need for more government to bring back order and safety. A prominent example of the latter is the fomenting of racism with the unabashed support of the “Black Lives Matter” movement. As an aside, this is still Barack Obama’s vision for America and he does not intend to give up on it after leaving office. He has already stated he is remaining in Washington D.C. He will have no hesitation in breaking form and not being a model of decorum. He will be trying through whatever means, political or otherwise, to keep pushing toward that Socialist vision.

In contrast, Donald Trump’s vision of and for America was summed up in his campaign motto, “Make America Great Again.” His vision of America is different but also a pessimistic one. The motto assumes that America is currently not a great nation. However the reason is not because our fundamental principles as a nation are flawed but rather we have strayed from those principles and thus are not a great nation as once we were. This is the key difference between Trump and Obama’s visions of America and it informs Trump’s vision for America as well.

Trump’s vision for America is the polar opposite of Obama’s. Instead of a fundamental transformation of our founding principles, his vision is to embrace the fundamental founding principles of our nation in order to make it great once again. I understand this might seem a dubious claim to make on its face, but I offer the following as evidence. His appointments to important positions in the cabinet and his incoming staff indicate two critical points. One is they show a favoring of freer markets, secure borders, small government, and lower taxation all of which I would submit are a movement back toward our founding principles and two is that all of these were promised during Trump’s campaign. In fact, Trump spoke of it himself as a “movement”.

Our President-elect may just be on to something here. There is a long way to go, but it is a beginning and I think that in large part that is what people really voted for, a movement toward what made America great once and we hope will make her great again.

To answer the hypothetical question of whether of not Obama would have beaten Trump in the 2016 election, if this is a movement such as I have described, I am confident Trump would still have won. Perhaps if Trump were matched with the Obama of 2008 he would have lost. But today’s Obama is not that Obama. That Obama didn’t have Fast and Furious, Benghazi, Obamacare, the IRS Scandal, the VA Scandal, the Iran-Nuke (enabling) Deal, Syria, a corrupt FBI, CIA, IRS, DOJ, INS, State Dept. and Secret Service in addition to accruing more debt than all other Presidents combined, on his resume. No, there would have been no third term for Obama. But we should have known that already. After all, weren’t we told this would have been “his” third term if Hillary had won?

D.T. Osborn

I am a bi-vocational pastor of a small Baptist church in Nebraska. I also work in direct care of developmentally disabled adults. I have been married to my bride Linda for 31 years. We have been blessed with two adult children, Tom and Becky. Most of all I am a humble follower of my LORD Jesus who seeks His wisdom and direction.

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